Emma runs her fingers across Blackwood's mind. Attacking the man's belief, shaking his faith, would cripple his powers. Attacking the man's faith, however, is no easy task. But, Emma detects a small SLIVER OF DOUBT - doubt about the righteousness of the hijacking, doubt about his ability to stand against three X-Men. Perhaps a skilled talker or a strong psychic could use this information to inflict a crisis of faith. Good thing Emma's both a skilled talker and strong psychic. That's a 1d10 asset that you can use when trying to inflict emotional stress/trauma against the Crusader.

Seemingly unaware of the mental intrusion, the Crusader renews his attack against Wolverine, while Mace swings at Beast. The Crusader slashes at Wolverine's face and, as the mutant dodges the blade, lunges forward with his metal-capped boot in an attempt to knock Wolverine down. Mace's attack, on the other hand, goes horribly wild.

Wolverine grunts as the kick connects with him, his adamantium bones are unyielding enough to allow him to grab Crusader's leg in the process. While falling Wolverine swings Crusader by the leg around him attempting to separate sword from knight by bashing him along the airplane wall before ending up on his back in the aisle.

Team 1d8 ⇒ 8I’m the Best There Is at What I Do 1d8 ⇒ 3Focus SFX using Enhanced Strength and Grabbed Leg Stunt to make d10 1d10 ⇒ 5Combat Master 1d10 ⇒ 10

Total: 18, Effect Die: d10. Objective is to get Crusader to drop his sword

DOOM shall claim a d10! But let it not be said that DOOM is not a benevolent dictator. Emma, have a 1 Plot Point for your magnificent rolling.

Solo 1d10 ⇒ 10Zealot 1d8 ⇒ 4Mystic Expert 2d6 ⇒ (4, 4) = 8

Total = 14; Effect d8

Emma's hollow words do nothing to shatter the Crusader's confidence. He replies to Emma: "The mouth of them that speak lies," the Crusader pauses mid-sentence to slam his shield down on Wolverine, "...shall be stopped!"

Wolverine rolls straight into the framework supporting a chair arresting his motion, the shield then impacts with the back of his head knocking him senseless for a moment. However he recovers quickly bruises already fading into non-existence as he regains his feet.

"You are really asking for it now! Lets see how long your religion can protect your ugly hide." Wolverine snarls, before leaping back into the fray, his right hand and claw carving the air as it descends towards Crusader's face.

Team 1d8 ⇒ 3I’m the Best There Is at What I Do 1d8 ⇒ 6Enhanced Strength 1d8 ⇒ 2Focus SFX using Adamantium Claws (d10) and Combat Master (d10) to make a d12 1d12 ⇒ 7

Wolverine manages to get around the hostage, but the obstacle was enough to reduce the effective reach of his claws. The Crusader manages to escape with only a few shallow scratches to the left cheek. The Crusader's effect die was bigger than Logan's die, thereby reducing Logan's d8 to a d6.

As the Crusader readies to attack Wolverine once more, he halts in mid-swing, his mind filled with thoughts of thou shalt not steal.

Solo 1d10 ⇒ 6Zealot 1d8 ⇒ 7Mystic Expert 1d8 ⇒ 7

Total = 14; Effect = d10

"No!" he cries, clutching at his head, "It is no crime to liberate ill-gotten funds - to use them in the crusade for good!"

Spending a d10 from the DOOM pool to take the initiative from Beast.

The Crusader staggers back, smacking into the cockpit door, forcing it open. "Crash it! Crash this vessel into the heathens below!" he commands the pilot, before smashing his shield into the controls. "Behold mine anger and my fury shall be poured upon this place. Upon man and upon beast and upon the trees of the field. And upon the ground; and it shall burn and it shall not be quenched!"

Spending 1d8 to create a new scene distinction: UNRESPONSIVE CONTROLS.

Over the communicators to the Balckbird "Scott, Crusader has gone mad and decided to take the plane down. I hope you are clear as this ride might get very bumpy shortly. We'll try to save the federal agents but I can't be sure we'll save the plane. stay close"

to the others "We have to stop him!" as Hank races toward the cockpit with the goal of restraining crusader.

Hank leaps past crusader, and then springs back trying to push Crusader back out the cockpit.

Wolverine plunges his claws towards Crusader's throat attempting to kill him with one blow.

Team 1d8 ⇒ 4I’m the Best There Is at What I Do 1d8 ⇒ 2Enhanced Strength 1d8 ⇒ 4Focus SFX using Adamantium Claws (d10) and Combat Master (d10) to make a d12 1d12 ⇒ 7Berserk SFX. You get it back as a d10 1d8 ⇒ 1

Total: 11, Effect Die: 1d8 (Physical). Terrible rolls...

I nominate Beast to act next if this somehow takes Crusader out of the action

... but he isn't fast enough. Though not a killing blow, as intended, Wolverine's claws leave deep rends along the Crusader's right shoulder. The zealot barely gives the wound a second thought, as he glances out the window at the oncoming ground; his eyes still burning with a mad fervor.

A look of worry momentarily crosses the Crusader's face. The stress of battle and a fast approaching death have taken a toll on his mental state. Just a little more prodding and the scholar-knight is likely to snap.

Crusader's pilot does his best to keep out of Beast's way. The poor man doesn't look as ready to die as the Crusader does. After a brief inspection, Beast realises that the Crusader didn't do too much damage to the controls. With some quick rewiring, he temporarily restores the C-130's controls. UNRESPONSIVE CONTROLS no longer apply. Beast's no pilot though. Somebody with a vehicle speciality might be needed here.

Since Emma skipped ahead of Beast this turn, it looks like it's the Crusader's turn next.

The Crusader takes a deep breath, refocusing his thoughts. "You shall not permit a sorceress to live!" he quotes, casting a menacing glance towards Emma. Unfortunately, he can't follow up on his threat until he has at least dealt with Wolverine. Again, he tries to stun Wolverine with a blow to the head.

Wolverine doesn't even attempt to dodge the blow and instead headbutts the shield directly smashing it back down onto Crusader.

Team 1d8 ⇒ 1I’m the Best There Is at What I Do 1d8 ⇒ 5Enhanced Strength1d8 ⇒ 2Combat Master1d10 ⇒ 3

Total: 7, Effect Die: 1d10Spending 1PP to use my Adamantium Skeleton SFX to use the stunt regardless of failure and give Crusader his effect die stepped down back in physical stress. I believe he gets an extraordinary success though

Wolverine gets an instant headache and a gash across the top of his head from the blow but the shield smashes back with force into Crusader.

Will post my action after I hear what happens to Crusader :-PEdit: Nvm, I believe it's Emma next.

I'm still not sure about my reading about the Weapon X training yet, but let's run with it for now. Essentially, Crusader gets a 1d10 effect, because of extraordinary success, which he deals as physical stress to Wolverine. In return, Wolverine's head deals 1d8 back to the Crusader. Fair enough.

KRRR-RACK!

Wolverine can clearly hear the ulna and radius of the Crusader's shield arm breaking upon impact. The warrior-scholar howls in pain, collapsing to the ground, desperately clutching at his broken arm.

The Crusader is stressed out and gets 1d6 physical trauma (broken arm). For now, he's out of the fight, whimpering in the corner and pondering his lack of faith. Let's ignore initiative order for now while you deal with the plane. You have about 3 rounds before impact.

Wolverine climbs to his feet, bleeding from his head and stumbles into the cockpit.

"Get out of the way you blue fuzzball! You are going to get us all killed!", he snarls before shoving Hank out the seat and grabbing the controls.

Wolverine wrestles with the newly repaired controls attempting to pull the plane out of its nose dive with a combination of strength and skill. This reminds him vaguely of that incident in Korea 1957 when his Mustang was shot down.

Wolverine struggles with the controls, slowly bringing the plane out of its dive, avoiding an engine stall or catastrophic crash. The federal agents let out a collective sigh of relief. The day is saved!

Once the agents are free of their bonds (and the Crusader and his zealots are tied up and gagged), the federal pilot tells Wolverine of a nearby airport. There, federal agents would be available to take the Crusader back into custody.

"Well done, team. We've prevented a disaster and captured a major anti-superhuman terrorist in the process. This will go a long way in proving the good that we, as superhumans, can do. However, we have to tread carefully here - in this case, we were the only ones able to respond quickly enough to the threat, but we may still take a beating for circumventing the proper channels," Cyclops (always willing to put a downer on things, even when giving praise) voices over the comunnicator, "I think we should ensure that the Crusader is handed over to the correct authorities. I can meet you at the airfield, unless you have other plans."

"We could always toss him out of the airplane," Wolverine says with a smile, "What? I was just joking! Maybe it's time I called up that old friend of mine and see if he has a place to stash Crusader for now. Thoughts?"

"No need for that, I'll land the plane if we can just find a place to put it down," Wolverine reaches for the radio and tunes it to a SHIELD monitored frequency, "Fury this is Logan, I've got a package for you. Over."

A few moments pass before the radio crackles to life and a gruff voice responds: "Damn it, Logan! How many times have I told you not to contact me like this. You know my relationship with Hill and S.H.I.E.L.D. are... strained at best."

Fury pauses, sighing deeply before continuing. "But, you stopped the Crusader and that's what matters. There's an airport nearby, I'll patch the co-ordinates through. There'll be somebody to take the Crusader into custody there. They won't give you any hassle. Tell Summers that he can land safely there."

Assuming nobody objects to the landing.

The small, mid-west airport is nothing more than a small terminal building and a few hangars. The runway is barely large enough to handle a C-130, but the Federal pilot brings the ship down safely. Of course, the Black Bird has little trouble at all. Men in black suits, in black panel vans, are already waiting to take custody of the Crusader and his cultists. The exchange happens not too far from the airport buildings and a blaring television can easily be heard:

"We now return to Stamford, where the New Warriors have tracked several supervillains to their suburban hideout. Speedball, how many are we dealing with?"

"Three... No, four. I think I see Coldheart in the backyard emptying the trash. That's four total. And all of them are on the FBI most wanted list."

One of the Federal agents perks up as he hears the show. "Hey, this is one of my favourite shows. You X-Men should consider a show like that. After seeing what you did here, I'm sure you'd get better ratings than the New Warriors."

Emma's good-natured response is, "Both, actually. They're mostly really still teenagers, in the sense that they're still grappling with who they are and what they are becoming. But the crime is real, you cannot script that without it going horribly wrong when you least expect it."

"Coldheart has spotted the New Warriors! She's running back into the house to warn her fellow fugitives: Cobalt Man, Nitro, and Speedfreek! For viewers just joining, our New Warriors are about to face their toughest challenge yet. Speedfreek is best known for nearly taking down The Incredible Hulk!"

"And Speedball has got Speedfreek against a wall!" the presenter suddenly blurts out.

"I heard that clothes make the man, Speedfreek," Speedball chimes as he lands punch after punch against the supervillain, "And in your case, it's totally true!"

"Yes, good one, Speedball! That's because Speedfreek relies on his suit, get it?" the fan laughs as he runs over to the television, "And it looks like the Warriors caught them while old Speedfreek was taking a nap." The other Federal agents simply shrug their shoulders or shake their heads.

Fury's men finish securing the Crusader and his men in the vans. One of the black suit men approaches Cyclops and thanks the X-Men for their service.

"Those kids are going to end up in a load of trouble one day," Wolverine grumbles before turning back to Fury's men, "I suggest putting a sock in Crusader's mouth before he prattles your ear off about saving your souls. Send my regards to Fury."

Wolverine approaches the surviving FBI agents, "Keeping in mind we saved your skins, tell your bosses that the X-Men can only react so quickly by not being tied down by bureaucratic strings. I expect we can let you handle getting the money into the right hands."

Walking away without so much as a goodbye Logan strides towards the Blackbird, "Coming Emma or do you want to watch more of that kids TV show?"

"On your feet, Nitro!" Namorita, heard over the television broadcast, commands, "And don't try any of your explosions, or I'll just hit you again."

The Federal agent, now closer to the television, turns up the volume.

"Namorita, right? You're the Submariner's cousin or something," Nitro replies, "Well, we're not the bargain bin losers that you guys normally fight, Baby. You're playing with the big boys now..."

Suddenly, the dialogue gets cut by a loud explosion and the television screen flashes white momentarily before being replaced by the snow and white noise of a lost signal. Several tense seconds pass by before a 'We apologise for the break in broadcast' message pops up, accompanied by nature scenes and muzak. The Black Suits pause to listen to their ear pieces. One of them curses under his breath: "Nitro went nuclear... he just took out Stamford."

---

Back in the air, aboard the Black Bird, Scott continues his assessment of the situation: "The reports are still coming in, but it sounds like Nitro detonated himself next to an elementary school. The explosion was far greater than any other he had previously displayed, taking out several town blocks along with the school. Initial estimates suggest that 500 innocents, if not more, were caught in the blast. Nitro is currently missing. No matter what else, this changes public perception of superhumans - this will reach Congress. We as the leaders of the X-Men, need to decide how we plan to respond to this crisis."

"Damn it, Wolverine! We have to tread carefully here. One wrong move and all of this will get blamed on mutants. We can't just go running off after Nitro," Scott counters, through half-clenched teeth.

"Emma's right - we should be focusing on helping out at the disaster site. Generating some good will; show that we care. I'll send a message through to the mansion and O*N*E. Some of the 198 would be of great help."

Stamford is in shambles. By the time the Black Bird arrives, the official death toll has climbed to 600 adults and 60 children. The New Warriors and then crew have been declared dead: Microbe, Night Thrasher, Namorita, and Speedball. Three of the four supervillains (Cobalt Man, Coldheart, and Speedfreek) are also declared dead. Nitro's whereabouts are still unknown.

Rescue efforts are still ongoing, with many civil and government agencies already on the ground. Several members of the superhero community are also there. Iron Man, Goliath, She-Hulk, The Fantastic Four, and many more are also helping, digging out survivors and clearing roads. Several other X-Men also arrive, with human-piloted O*N*E sentinels following closely. Even here, when providing humanitarian aid, mutants are still mistrusted.

One thing is clear: Stamford has changed everything. Nobody can ignore registration any longer. News channels are already reporting of an upcoming emergency meeting at Congress.

This is a transition scene. Use the opportunity to interact with the other heroes on the scene, explore the ruined town, win over the ever-present media, look for clues about Nitro, or simply try to help survivors. Think of creating resources that can be used later or pulling in resources you've already created.

During the flight to go help, I'll give Logan some quick medical treatment to help him regenerate quicker. "I know this is pointless Logan, but I can't sit idle after seeing such a horrific act! At least sit still and let me look at your wounds for now"

Now for after we arrive there and the transition plays out
Hank tries to rally as many of the x-men volunteers into a coordinated emergency response team, setting up search teams, and a medical treatment tent with as much equipment as can be mustered in short time. The goal is to take charge of the medical response side of things and help as many of the injured as possible while also offering all those effected radiation resisting drugs to combat any effects of exposure.

If I was to have any other interaction, it would be to rally up all the medical experts together and get a coordinated treatment plan going for all the patients.

Emma unlocks her full area sweeping ability - seeking out minds in all states, even unconscious ones. She tries to get as dense a result as she can manage to an area at least twice the radius of the impact.